GT, good observations. Off the top of my head I can't think of a coach in any of the major sports who led different franchises to multiple championships (let alone back-to-back-to-back) with the dominant player of the time on each of those rosters.

Scotty Bowman has some parallels. Arguably his cumulative career record and accomplishments might be more impressive, but it's really nitpicking at those lofty heights. As a head coach he won more than anyone in league history. Nine Cups with three franchises (five in Montreal, four consecutively), one in Pittsburgh as a coach (inheriting Badger Bob's championship team from the year before).  And three with Detroit as coach. He   was also in the front office of three different organizations in different capacities for three more Cups. His most recent was just a couple of years ago with Chicago as a special consultant, with his son Stan the general manager, so he really did have a full circle career. All in all, twelve Stanley Cup teams have his name inscribed on the trophy. And all the career coaching records as well. He went out on a high note too, retiring from coaching after Detroit's 2002 championship.

His style overall diverged from Phil and Bill in some ways, but they all were master psychologists and tacticians, smarter than their contemporaries and with clear visions about how to sustain championship teams. All found ways to get under the skin of their star players to motivate them to peak performance during the most critical situations. Scotty's career lasted far longer. From 1968 to 2010 in all capacities. And before 1968 he was a young coach in Montreal's farm system for a decade, absorbing the wisdom of Sam Pollock, Frank Selke, and his idol, Toe Blake. St Louis made him the first coach in their franchise history and he took the expansion Blues to three consecutive Cup finals, where they lost to dynasty quality Boston (Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito led) and Montreal (Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, etc.). The only team that he coached that didn't make it to a Cup final was Buffalo, where he mostly was GM but served the dual role for a number of seasons. But in Pittsburgh he kept Mario Lemieux's juggernaut rolling and in Detroit continuously got the most out of a highly skilled mix of largely European based stars and North American grit. He always was sharp to adapt to changing times, sense the trends, and figure out how to keep his teams motivated.

As far as coaching great players, there isn't a parallel with the Kobe/Jordan dynamic. He did coach some all-time great players on championship teams. He brought Guy Lafleur to the peak production of his career, turning him from a mild disappointment to the dominant scoring star of the league for almost a decade. On those Montreal teams he presided over most of the careers of Hall of Famers Ken Dryden, Larry Robinson, Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard. He coached Mario Lemieux in his prime, along with Jagr, Coffey, Stevens, Murphy and more with Pittsburgh. And of course, Lidstrom, Yzerman, Shanahan etc. with Detroit. And in his first coaching job with the Blues, many of his players were actually older than him! Long time greats like Jacques Plante, Glenn Hall, Dickie Moore, Al Arbor, Jean Guy Talbot and others were coaxed into very productive performances by Bowman even though they were at the very end of their playing careers.

If you want to add a book to your library, I'd suggest "Scotty Bowman. A Life in Hockey" by Douglas Hunter. Viking Books. 1998. It only goes up to the end of the 1997 season but covers his life and career in detail. Some of the behind the scenes stuff with Montreal management at the end of his time their makes me wince, but that's the way things go sometimes. The quote I remember most about him comes from Steve Shutt, who said that the players hated him, but  afterwards realized how  grateful  they were to the success he brought to their teams and careers.

Last Edited By: Arnold49 05/19/13 06:42 AM. Edited 3 times.